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[Podcast] EP. 47 Illa Ghee - Willing to Die for the streets

Illa Ghee shares his story of adversity and reinventing himself to become a well respected Hip Hop Artist, Screenwriter and Independent Film director.
www.illaghee.net
Beats by www.insane-beatz.com

Transcript:
02:55 TD: We gonna talk about New York MINUTE. We're gonna talk about Suede Cigarettes
because those are your current projects that you have right now, but before that, tell me what it was
like when you were growing up as a kid.
03:11 Illa Ghee: My childhood was pretty awesome. I would say no, but looking back at it was
awesome. Had toys, had a brother, got to played, ran around. Just basic child stuff.
03:31 TD: Basic child stuff, so to paint the picture a little bit clearer, were you still in Brooklyn as a
child as well?
03:39 TD: Were you in Brooklyn when you were a kid as well?
03:41 IG: Yeah, yeah. Born and raised in Brooklyn. Grew up in Brooklyn, from the housing. Like I
said, I think I was a pretty happy child.
03:54 TD: Okay, okay. So, what was your dad like?
04:00 IG: You said what was my pops?
04:01 TD: Yeah, what was your father like? What was his, you know what I'm saying, his
demeanor, his character?
04:07 IG: My pops was... Coming to find out a lot of things about my pops, but me, like me and
him one on one. He was cool, but he had his ways. He was like, like he was around somewhat, but I
only really learned one thing from my pops, to tell you the truth. And that was just, "You don't buy
jewelry to be scared to wear it." [laughter] And that's the only thing he really ever told me.
04:40 TD: So break that down.
04:43 IG: Basically, he had a bunch of jewels on and we was walking somewhere and this is like
early '80s, and I was like really nervous of the jewelry he had on. I was like, "You're not scared to
wear that?" He was like, "Oh, you don't buy jewelry to be scared to wear it." [chuckle] And that's
the only thing really that stuck in my mind that he ever told me, you know what I'm saying? Other
than that, what I've learned about him was shocking, the things I know about him now.
05:16 TD: Okay, okay, okay. So how did you get involved with the streets?
05:25 IG: Pretty much it was a combination of selfishness and kind of the insane.
05:35 TD: So explain that.
05:40 IG: It was... I was very, very naive and nervous as a child. I were pretty much like my back
really, really had to be against the wall before I fall back.
05:52 TD: Okay.
05:53 IG: I was scared of any and everything. At the end, it just got to the point of selfishness of,
you know, I wanted things and I couldn't afford them. I was just kinda tired of being scared and got
tired of being broke and I wasn't looking at things correctly. There were pressure and everything. So
the pressure of feeling like you don't have things you should have, when your parent is doing the
best they can. Or they have a plan and you don't understand their plan, and they was raised a
different way. So I decided to take matters in my own hands and take the things that I wanted.
06:45 TD: But it sounds totally opposite of you saying that you've been scared but then when you
say you were tired of being scared, so you basically, you wanted to get yours.
06:54 IG: Yeah, I did but I was also, like I said, I was scared in... The neighborhoods was rough
and I was scared. I have known for a fact I was scared of everything. I was scared of everything, if I
get approached by dudes, but not realizing I was only like 10 or 11 years old. Yes, I should have been scared.
07:18 TD: Right.
07:19 IG: It was just, you know what I'm saying, I was just like, I was just nervous, just like a
nervous dude.
07:24 TD: What was it like the first day when you was up north?
07:31 IG: I was like... Downstate in Virginia, and it was... I felt... It was a lot of lessons. I was
taught from family members and friends, mostly family members. I had a lot of family members on
the street. And it was the feeling of "suck it up, this is what you signed up for". So can't, don't, you
better not run to anybody, you know what I'm saying, you can't climb, this is too rough, it is not like
you know the rules. You know the rules when you step into it, just you know, of course, you gonna
have it natural. This is new nervousness, but this is like, prepare to go to that extra mile to prove
your point. I was in that. Prepare to go that extra, extra mile to prove your point.
08:32 TD: And what do you consider that extra mile?
08:35 IG: If you gotta stab the shit out of somebody stabs the shit out of you. Don't just whip their
ass, punish them. Punish them to the point where they need to really understand what their next
move is. Either they're gonna leave it alone or they really gonna have to come at you.
08:56 TD: So before you take it to that place of punishment, what goes through your mind? Is it
just like kill or be killed. Or
[09:05] ____ I just gotta go out loud, like what is...
IG: [09:09] Queenis son gotta make it home.
09:11 TD: Okay.
09:13 IG: Yeah, just, I gotta make it home.
09:17 TD: Got you, got you. So once you went through that, what was it like, the first day home?
09:25 IG: It felt, everything felt crowded.
09:30 TD: Really?
09:32 IG: Yeah, everything felt crowded, like just looking, when you are in the mountains
everything is peace. I mean, except for the inside, but it's just like, you're in a country environment,
the yard is big, everywhere you see trees, everything is not so close together. So when you come
back, you just feel like, "Wow, this is totally different." This is where I came from. Everything
seems cluttered. I kept looking at the apartment. Like wow, this is... Like this is so... I felt cluttered,
like this is cluttered. Why does it look like this? It looks depressing when you come from a
different, it just... It looks depressing. [chuckle]
10:22 TD: Is it depressing just because of the scenery or depressing because of the condition, I
mean, you coming from a...
10:29 IG: The condition is like... Everything is like you see everything, from being, from stepping
out of it and then you're coming back to look. Yeah, everything look depressing, the scenery,
everything. Like everything, you're like "Yo, damn, this is where I came from?"
10:48 TD: You know what, so interested about what you're saying because what you're describing
in reality is the exact opposite of what they put in movies, right? [chuckle] Most of the time like we
watch, let's say like, I don't know, we could take any hood flick and when people come home, it's
almost like, "Yo, you back home." Like, yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, we got this bag of money for you
and you looking at it like, this is some bullshit, like who wants to live like this.
11:16 IG: Yes, I mean, it was just, it was everything. I mean, I dealt with that too. I have friends
that was happy to see. I mean everyone was happy to see me home, but I have friends that felt like,
"Oh yeah, my boy is back. We love
[11:30] ____." And I was just like, "No, no." [chuckle] That's it.
It was like, you know what I'm saying, that's it. I'm not doing that again. Some of them really got
pretty pissed off and it was like, "Yo, [11:46] ____. I was like, "Ah, I can't do it."
11:49 TD: But what made you say that you're not gonna do it? Because most of the time when
people come home, they get stuck right back into doing the things that got them there in the first
place 'cause that's all they know.
11:58 IG: Yeah, but it's the fact that as they say now I didn't know the terminology for a dentist like
you have to reinvent
yourself.
12:10 TD: Okay.
12:11 IG: It's just like, "I was willing to die for the street." Like I knew the aspect of that. I was
willing to die. If it happened it happened, you know what I'm saying. And it was just like, "Okay,
well, am not in that space no more." I learned a lot. I've read a lot. I've learned a lot. My direction
has changed and, you know what I'm saying, you wanna do some things.
12:40 TD: Okay.
12:41 IG: You wanna do different things plus I like women.
[chuckle]
12:44 IG: And while you may have some CO's here and there in jail but there is pretty
much no women.
12:53 TD: Gotcha, got you. So when do you find your passion for art and when do you get into this
deep creative process of music and drawing, when is all this come about, when do you really take it there?
13:10 IG: Well, I will say the passion from art probably came from my mom's. My mom's know
how to draw. My mom's is very of course like most anybody, other black homes, my mom is
playing music, you know what I'm saying, like old temple soul and R&B and she knew how to
draw, my brother knew how to draw, and so I drew. That's where most of it came from, yeah.
13:44 TD: So when does the art move into the physical aspect of drawing going to poetry and
writing rhymes.
13:54 IG: I guess I started learning that I see things a little different.
14:02 TD: How so?
14:03 IG: The same way somebody may see a parked Range Rover on a corner, I may see and pay
attention to the front two tires that is tilted to the right of the parked Range Rover on a corner.
14:20 TD: Okay.
14:20 IG: I would focus on that rather than the car.
14:24 TD: Okay, okay. So now we're gonna talk about some of your projects you have going on.
Let's talk about New York MINUTE first. How did that whole thing come about? Because it really
seemed random like you just dropped a show like out of nowhere. Like we knew you could drop a
music but then where did the show come from?
14:44 IG: New York MINUTE pretty much basically came from me watching a couple web series
and not liking them. And just felt like, you know what, I'm one of the people like just don't sit there
complaining about something if you don't like it. If you don't like it and if you feel like you can do
better, then do better.
15:04 TD: And you really, as you told me in the beginning, you actually headed to film class, now
you would never produce, directed, nothing for show.
15:16 IG: No.
15:17 TD: So what in your mind gave you the motivation to be like, "Yeah, I could do this." Were
you even scared a little bit? Like thing, it was gonna come out like trash.
15:28 IG: Any art form you have or you do it into you always gonna be, you're worried about what
people think of it or how they would receive it and, you know what I'm saying, it's just like, I can't
make this bad because I talk entirely too much shit.
15:58 TD: Okay.
15:58 IG: You just go for it.
16:02 TD: Okay. So describe to us what's gonna be the backdrop of the show for those people who
don't know anything about it.
16:10 IG: New York MINUTE is about... Let me get it right here.
[chuckle]
16:22 TD: It's your show, you better get it right.
16:24 IG: I gotta get it right because it's about a heartless criminal trying to escape his old logic of
entering the streets, becoming aware of his black pride. After being released from prison, the
heartless criminal, he's faced with what caused the actions of his past, rallying to change his future.
16:45 TD: Okay. I could dig that. So we're gonna get real random right now. What do you consider
your favorite comfort food?
16:55 IG: Comfort food, favorite comfort food. If I roll with anything, it has to be salmon.
17:07 TD: Salmon really. And how is it prepared? Is it baked? Is it honey glazed? What's going on
with it?
17:15 IG: I would say it has a little skin to it, a little charred skin.
17:26 TD: Okay.
17:29 TD: So... Go ahead finish. I'm sorry.
17:31 IG: No, that deliciousness to it.
[chuckle]
17:35 TD: That deliciousness to it. Very cool. So what's your fitness routine like now?
17:41 IG: My fitness routine, I do a lot of CrossFit stuff since I'm trying to come down on weight. I
do a lot of clean and presses and five exercises with only 30 seconds rest.
17:57 TD: Now we gotta talk about Suede Cigarettes because it was supposed to be out already.
What makes this project different from Metal Detectors?
18:05 IG: Well, this one, I'm trying to be more of an open book inside Suede Cigarettes. A lot of
times, for years, I avoided being an open book because a lot of our street ties or whatever, and to
being too much of an open book feels like absolving.
18:25 TD: Gotcha. Gotcha. So what motivates you every day?
18:30 IG: Life. My kids. Not to lay down. People see me as far in a different place, but I don't feel
I'm where I wanna be. So I fight. I become a fighter. I feel I have to always push towards and
constantly chase goals to push toward of.
19:00 TD: What do you do to control your anger?
19:03 IG: Exercise.
19:04 TD: Gotcha.
19:07 IG: Because people don't realize frustrations and everything, energy builds up in your body.
And when you don't release it, it is diagnosed as pretty much anger, or stress, and so on and so
forth. So if you release it, it brings you back to an even balance.
19:25 TD: To learn more about Illa Ghee, visit www.illaghee.net.